A slightly unusual portrait of two nautch girls in what seems like a room but is likely a studio given the painted column on the left. The bed is a prop, and the woman seated on the floor is apparently holding a mirror to the woman seated on the bed.
Lascars were sailors, mostly from the subcontinent, serving on European ships that sailed the world and who spoke their own multinational tongue, "Lascari." Throughout the 16th through 19th centuries many landed in Britain and America, with a few
Ajmer, in the middle of Rajasthan, is a known for its tomb of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, a Sufi Saint
Raja Ajay Pal Chauhan founded the city of Ajmer in the 11th century, although even older structures have been found in the area.
Ganga Mahal Ghat is one of the holiest ghats at Varanasi and was built in the 1830s. Note how the hand-tinting has highlighted, not too carefully, the sun umbrellas in the foreground.
Fort William in Calcutta, completed in 1781, is a remnant British colonial rule.
Dalhousie Barrack, a four-storey building, is a captivating component of Fort William. Today it is the Military Head quarters of the Eastern Command of Indian Army.
Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh, is often called the "city of the Nawabs."
The pillars, domes and minarets of Kaiser Pasand drew on Mughal architecture and European styles popular among Lucknow's ruling class in the 1820s when the
Another Dhurandhar postcard masterpiece, with the pale green background and statue of Lord Mahavir, the last Tirthankara of the Jain religion setting off the living priest in the foreground.
An apparently hand-stenciled color card likely made from a photograph at the Ravi Varma Press facilities in Karla, outside Mumbai. Note how carefully everyone, especially the two dancers, are holding their pose in this vibrant frozen moment.
A postcard sent from Bareilly in UP to a woman in France in 1905 shows how the placement of stamps was on the front of a postcard was once itself a performative art.
